


Eiji's Freshman Year

by kat_likes_writing



Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Lee Yut-Lung & Okumura Eiji are Best Friends, M/M, Slow Burn, Slow Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:21:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26117116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kat_likes_writing/pseuds/kat_likes_writing
Summary: Eiji is excited to move into his dorm as a college freshman. But unfortunately, his car breaks down on the interstate and he has to wait for a tow truck. The rest of his dorm move-in turns out to be a disaster. Eiji doesn't let that stop him from making friends with his RA and his roommate. Eiji joins his first photography class and becomes fast friends with another student in the class, Ash Lynx. They all become best friends while trying to adjust to college life together.
Relationships: Ash Lynx/Okumura Eiji
Comments: 5
Kudos: 31





	Eiji's Freshman Year

**Author's Note:**

> So the whole disastrous move-in day is based on my real-life experience for my freshman year. Except instead of being in New York, it was in the South during the summer. It was kinda sucked at the time, but it's funny now. Enjoy this fun College AU where no one dies!

Dorm move-in day should have been a fun day that marked the beginning of a new chapter in Eji’s life. But instead, the car was pulled over on the side of the road. The car had suddenly stopped working, everything had just stopped all at once. 

Ibe had quickly hit the gas and shouted loudly. Eiji had been napping, and woke up to his scared yelling. All the lanes on the interstate were full, they couldn’t pull over. Ibe held on tightly to the steering wheel, keeping his shoulders firmly against the seat. 

“Hold on, Eiji. The car isn’t working.”

Eiji frantically looked over to Ibe. “Wait, what?”

Cautiously, Ibe guided the car to the farthest right lane, until he was able to pull over on the side of the interstate. He hit the emergency lights. 

Eiji took in a deep breath. He was still holding onto the dashboard. Even if Ibe wasn’t going very fast, it was still the thought he had no way to control the car. Eji frowned and glanced toward Ibe. 

“Uhm, what are we going to do?” He only had a certain amount of time set aside for him to move everything into his dorm and get the key for the dorm. Not to mention the fact that they still have thirty-five minutes left to get to the location of the college’s campus. At this rate, they might miss his move in time entirely.

But they first had to deal with the fact they were stuck on the side of the road, the car not working and filled with everything for Eiji’s dorm. 

Ibe pulled out his phone. “I’m going to call a tow truck. I just hope we can still make it on time.”

Eiji smiled at him, hoping to make Ibe feel less stressed. “It’s okay, I’m sure if I call the RA, they will understand.”

He pulled out his phone and went through his emails to find the email from his RA. He thought he had seen a phone number attached at the bottom. As he scrolled, he could hear Ibe opening the hood of the car. He scrolled and found the email. Quickly, he dialed the number. 

In a few moments, a voice answer. “Hello? This is Shorter Wong of Lee Residence Hall.”

“Hi, I’m Eiji Okumura, I’m moving into the dorm in an hour-”

“Hi! That’s awesome, bro!” 

Eiji glanced out toward where Ibe was on the phone and looking into the engine. “Uhm, well. Unfortunately, on the way to the college, my car broke down.”

There was silence for a moment. 

“Oh my god.” Shorter said after a moment. “Bro, that  _ sucks _ .”

Eiji sighed and hung his head. “Yeah. So, um, will I still be able to move in if I miss the time slot?”

He heard Shorter laugh. Not in a mean way though. “Yeah, bro. That’s okay, I’ll just go ahead and tell the head RA what’s going on. Alex will totally understand, he’s a chill guy.”

Eiji let out a sigh of relief. At least that was one good thing that’s happened today. “Oh, that’s good at least.”   
Shorter laughed again. “Yeah, that really sucks. Like on your first day, man.”

“Tell me about it.” Eiji said. He glanced out the windows. The interstate was full of cars whizzing by their car. He always hated being on the interstate. 

“Thank you, I really appreciate it.” Eiji said after a moment of staring out the window. 

“Hey man, don’t worry about it. I gotcha back.”

“Goodbye,” Eiji hung up. He took a moment to take a deep breath. Well, Shorter seemed really nice. At least he knew there would be at least one nice RA in his dorm. 

Ibe opened up the driver’s door. He looked upset. “It will take forty minutes for the tow truck to get here.”

“Forty minutes!” Eiji sat up in his seat, his eyes wide. 

Ibe shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck. “I know. But he said he just finished dropping off another car. None of the other places were open right now.”

“Oh man,” Eiji fell back against his seat. The car was already starting to get hotter and it felt stuffy inside. Eiji pushed open his door to let some fresh air in. 

Ibe climbed into his seat. “I’m really sorry, this is not how I wanted your first day to go.”

Eiji laughed quietly. “You don’t have to apologize, it’s not like you did it on purpose.”

Ibe laughed. “I guess that’s true.”

He tried to lighten the mood. “Well, you better not have planned this on purpose. I mean, I know you said you would miss me but-”

Ibe laughed again, this time sounding a little less stressed. 

Eiji had hoped forty minutes would be short. But the man driving the tow truck ended up arriving thirty minutes after the forty minute mark. Eiji could see Ibe trying not to lose his temper at the man. But it wasn’t his fault the traffic was so bad. 

It took another twenty minutes to get the car up onto the tow truck. Eiji stood in the shade the whole time, trying to block out the blaring sun. Normally it wasn’t so hot here, but it felt like the temperature was in the triple digits. 

They claimed into the back of the tow truck, as the man drove to a local car shop. Ibe seemed to be privately praying that they would be able to quickly solve the problem. Since they still had to be able to drive all his things to his dorm and unload. 

Eiji sat in a waiting chair by the door. He was mindlessly scrolling through his phone while Ibe talked to the mechanic about the car. He thought someone said something about a transmission. He hoped not. That would take overnight for them to fix and replace. 

While he was waiting, Eiji texted his roommate to let him know that he would be late. He lowered his phone and looked around the garage. It was filled with cars, most of them seemed fine. But a few were smashed badly, the metal scrunched up from a collision. A few people in mechanic uniforms walked around, checking on cars and lugging around tool boxes. 

The whole garage smelled strongly of gas fumes and oil. Even with the large doors opened all the way for airflow. 

Ibe walked over to Eiji. He sighed as a way of greeting. “So, he said that the transmission died. It’s going to take overnight.”

Eiji slumped his shoulders. “Oh no.”

Ibe then broke out into a huge smile. “But I called an Uber! The guy has a van so we can hopefully fit everything into it! Problem solved!”

“You what?” Eiji gave him a look. Ibe was not the best with technology, he frequently would ask Eiji the simplest of questions. Recently, he asked how to change the brightness on his phone and how to change the volume settings. 

Ibe looked a bit sheepish. “Though it did take me awhile to figure it out at first. But I think I got the hold of it. It’s kind of like a taxi.”

Eiji blinked at him. “I’m surprised you called an Uber. I thought you hated the idea of them.”

Ibe crossed his arms. “I do. But only if you take them alone. People get kidnapped all the time in Ubers. But if you’re with me it should be fine.”

Ibe looked out of the garage behind Eiji. “Look there he is now!”

Eiji stood up and quickly followed after Ibe. 

The man did not own a van. Or at least not one big enough for all of the things for Eiji’s dorm. Ibe looked highly disappointed. 

Quickly Eiji smiled at him. “Don’t worry! We can make it work!”

While Ibe talked to the man, Eiji went back to Ibe’s car and started grabbing boxes. He hefted one labeled kitchen stuff up and slowly walked over to Ibe. The back trunk was open, so he loaded it into the back. 

Ibe was already getting other boxes. It only took them a few minutes to get a half of the boxes. Then Eiji got into the back seat while Ibe got into the passenger seat. 

His phone dinged. It was a text from his new roommate. 

From Yut-Lung: Okay.

Eiji stared at his phone for a long moment. Well, that didn’t seem passive aggressive at all. He sighed. He had hoped he and his roommate would get along. He quickly shook his head, trying to remind himself to stay positive. Maybe Yut-Lung was having a bad day or something. 

They drove for thirty minutes into the city, then they were stuck in traffic for a long time. Eiji had played Duck Life while they waited. He wasn’t very good, but still found it really fun. It also helped to pass time. 

“We’re a minute away.” Ibe twisted around to look at Eiji. 

Eiji shoved his phone into his pocket. “Really?” He immediately looked out the window, waiting for any signs of his college. 

Ever since Eiji first heard about Green’s College, he had been wanting to go. He researched all possible majors and minors, and went on several tours of the campus. He also had been slowly collecting more and more T-shirts, mugs, shirts, flyers, and anything else with the college logo on it. He had it all hung up on his walls, until he took them down to pack. He packed it all up to go to the college they represented. 

They turned a corner and Eiji saw the campus. It was part of the city, so it wasn’t a separate thing from the city. Which was something Eiji loved about the campus, it felt like he was part of the city  _ and  _ campus rather than only the college. He liked that it was part of the city. 

They drove a little bit more until they stopped and parked. It was only a yard or two from his dorm. Eiji quickly hurried out the car to look up at his college. He had to tilt his head back to see the top. 

Lee Residence Hall.

Ibe opened the trunk of the car. “You go on ahead to get your key card, I’ll start getting your stuff ready. We should hurry, it looks like it’s going to rain.”

Eiji nodded quickly and hurried inside. The building was brick, but the bricks were a light, almost pastel, orange. He walked up the stairs to the small table set up by the door. 

A guy was lounging at the table, his legs propped up on the table. He was chewing on gum and making bubbles while texting someone on his phone. But Eiji couldn’t help but to stare at his tall, bright purple mohawk.

The guy saw him coming and swung his legs off the table. He put his phone away and grinned widely. 

“Hey, late boy.” he grinned more. “I’m glad to see you made it one piece.”

Eiji blinked as he walked up to the table. “Oh, you must be Shorter-”

“The one and only,” Shorter said. He grabbed a file from a box and handed it to Eiji. “This has your key card and the key to your dorm.”

Eiji took the file and smiled brightly. “Really? I’m so excited, it felt like I would never get here.”

Shorter grinned. He chewed on his gum some more. “So how’s your car?”

Eiji glanced back at it. “The transmission died on the interstate.” When he saw Shorter’s concerned face, he quickly explained. “But no one was hurt. We were able to take an Uber to get here. But everything didn’t fit in it.”

Shorter leaned forward to see the car. He whistled and sat back down. “You’ve had really bad luck all day haven’t you?”

Eiji laughed. “I mean, it’s going to make it a more memorable day.”

Ibe made his way over, carrying a small stack of boxes. “Uhm, where should I put these?”

Eiji jumped and reached into the file to grab his key. It was a normal looking key, but he still couldn’t quite believe it. He was at his dream college, moving into his dorm, and holding the key to said dorm. 

“I got the key.” Eiji started to go through the door, then paused. He looked back to Shorter. 

“Thank you!”

Shorter waved back in return. 

Eiji stepped into his dorm. The desk was in the center of the large space. A RA was seated behind the desk, they smiled as he walked into the room. 

After Eiji signed into the dorm, he made his way over to the elevators. He also took a few boxes from Ibe. Then they were going up in the elevator. 

He stopped on the fourth floor. He stepped out and looked around. No signs to guide him. Eiji frowned, he had no idea where to go. He looked at the other door numbers. 

“This way!” he went down the hallway, looking over all the wooden doors. He was so excited. 

He stopped outside his door. He looked up at the name tags. They were cut out in the shapes of little sunny side up eggs with the names Eiji and Yut-Lung on them. 

The number of the room was 419. 

Eiji took in a deep breath as he took his key and unlocked his dorm room for the first time. 


End file.
